kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
Recalling that her last moment with her grandmother was a walk to her school bus, a 13-year-old girl says finding Sita Jagessar’s corpse was the most shocking experience of her short life.
The teenager said on Thursday she was excited to return to school in Penal on Tuesday, but had stayed away for the past two days after someone brutally battered Jagessar’s face at their family home along Clarkia Drive, Debe.
“I felt sad and shocked. I never expected to experience this in my life,” the teen said.
She added: “It’s the most shocking thing.”
She told Guardian Media that she could not stay in the house and only visited on Thursday as her father, Rishi Persad, cleaned.
A report stated that around 3.45 pm on Tuesday, Barrackpore police responded to a report of a homicide and noticed Jagessar lying on her living room floor. She had wounds on her face resembling chops.
The teenager said on Tuesday morning, she and Jagessar went to purchase a newspaper nearby as she prepared to go off to school. Jagessar then dropped her off at her stop to board the school bus. She got home around 3.45 that afternoon, just ahead of her aunt Melissa returning from the hospital. Melissa went to her apartment at the side of the house, unaware of the horror a few meters away.
After finding the body, the teen ran across to Melissa’s apartment to tell her what she had seen. They both ran frantically to the neighbour’s home. Persad said his daughter now has to undergo counselling, which the police offer. He said that Jagessar, a mother of five and grandmother of five, was home alone as everyone else went to work and school. He said it appeared that someone beat her head in with a blunt object. By the time his daughter reached home, it was too late for anyone to help.
“My wife called me. She said somebody killed her mother. I work in Woodland, so I left and came right away. All I saw was just her on the ground with her head mashed up and blood all over,” Persad recalled.
Nothing was missing at the house and Persad said it did not appear anyone broke in. The front gate would usually be closed but he said when his daughter and Melissa got back, they met it open. He could not surmise if someone Jagessar knew got in and killed her, only supposing that she took her usual trip to play Play Whe and left the gate open on returning home.
Persad said no one threatened Jagessar and she did not have any quarrels with anyone as she was always humble. He said Jagessar was close with everyone in the family.
After reading about the numerous murders over the weekend, Persad said he felt that the country was unsafe but never expected it to reach his doorstep. He said the community was quiet and no one fought or quarrelled with each other.